So different, yet all so beautiful!

We love all the diversity that we find in the Tonto and Coconino National Forests surrounding the little mountain town of Pine, where we live.

Today we took one of our nicest bike rides ever, and two days ago took one of our best hikes.  All close to home.

Significantly, on the bike ride and on the hike we saw no other people.  We don't really understand.  It seems to us that there were many more people on the rim last year than this year.  We have had several outings where we have seen no one else.  We're not complaining, mind you.  We love having the forest all to ourselves.  It's just puzzling.

Yesterday's hike was along another of our four-numbers-and-a-letter Forest Service roads, which means it will definitely be somewhere between an old 4-wheel drive road and a deserted trail.

The forest opened up in the last quarter mile of the hike, and look what we saw!

Then today we headed off on our bikes, and found a totally different world just a few miles north of the hike we took yesterday.

Today's bike ride was amazing.  The road was comfortable enough that we could focus on the terrain.  It was in a part of the rim that we term the "grasslands."  There is grass everywhere and the trees are not closely spaced.  This gives a wonderful feeling of openness.

Today was also special because we saw wild turkeys!   We didn't know they were on the rim.  

While we're talking about wild animals, here is a nice shot of what we saw a few days earlier cycling in Strawberry.  For the record, it didn't wave back. How rude!

Here we are cycling on the Mogollon Rim in the vast beautiful grasslands that stretch from Happy Jack to Flagstaff and beyond…..

Every morning we wake up, talk, and get to decide…..what adventure will we go on today?

Here we are over ten years ago after climbing over nine miles to the top of Navaho Knobs in Capitol Reef….just one of thousands of adventures we have had.  Life is sweet when we’re together.